President Joseph R. Biden

Official White House Photo of President Joseph R. Biden by Aaron Schultz

President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born in Scranton, PA, the first of four children of Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden and Joseph Robinette Biden Sr. Biden graduated from the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School.

At age 29, President Biden became one of the youngest Americans ever elected to the United States Senate. Just weeks after his Senate election in 1972, tragedy struck when his wife Neilia and daughter Naomi were killed, and sons Hunter and Beau were critically injured, in a car accident. In 1977, he married Jill Jacobs, and in 1980 their daughter Ashley was born. The Bidens have seven grandchildren.

After serving as a Senator from Delaware for 36 years, Biden was elected as Vice President of the United States in 2008, the running mate of President Barack Obama. As Vice President, he worked alongside President Obama to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, the American Rescue Plan, and launched the Cancer Moonshot program. 

In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden made his own successful run for the Presidency, defeating President Donald J. Trump. His Vice President, Kamala Harris, was the first Black woman and first South Asian person to hold that office.

The priorities of the Biden administration included working with Congress to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law focused on rebuilding the nation’s roads and bridges, removing lead pipes, and expanding high-speed internet access; the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in climate action in history; and the CHIPS and Science Act, which was designed to boost American semiconductor research, development, and production. He also reignited the Cancer Moonshot program started when he was Vice President. On the world stage, Biden aligned the United States behind Ukraine after the Russian invasion in 2022 and supported the expansion of NATO.

Biden nominated the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and appointed over 200 federal judges.

Biden declared his candidacy for a second term as President in 2023 and won the Democratic primaries in 2024. However, on July 20, 2024, he announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race.